Nuclear Experts to Discuss Current State of Play

By an IPS Correspondent Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 30 2014 (IPS) - Against the backdrop of a political confrontation between two major nuclear powers over Ukraine, the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP) will be hosting a Forum titled “Law’s Imperatiove: A World Free of Nuclear Weapons.”

The meeting will also honour Peter Weiss, LCNP president emeritus, who in a recent op-ed piece for IPS said: “If psychosis is a loss of contact with reality, the current status of nuclear disarmament can best be described as psychotic.”

On the one hand, he said, the nuclear issue is beginning to creep out from under the rug where it has lain dormant for several decades. On the other hand, the commitment of the nuclear weapon states to a nuclear weapons-free world is honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

U.S. policy on nuclear disarmament is at best a mixed bag; that of the other eight nuclear armed powers is not much better, Weiss added in the article titled “Nuclear Disarmament, the State of Play.”.

The seminar will take place Wednesday, April 2, 2014 at the Downtown Community Television Center, Landmark Firehouse at 87 Lafayette St., New York City.

The LCNP played a key role in the 1996 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice which held unanimously that there exists an obligation to negotiate in good faith for the total abolition of nuclear weapons.

The forum will examine the current state of the law on nuclear weapons and what needs to be done to bring the obligation to fruition.

The speakers at the forum include Angela Kane, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Ambassador Hans Corell, former UN Legal Counsel, Professor Roger Clark, Rutgers School of Law, Camden, Elizabeth Shafer, Vice President, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy

A reception, following the forum, will celebrate the contributions of Weiss to nuclear disarmament and the international rule of law and raise funds for the future work of LCNP.

A distinguished human rights and international lawyer, Weiss retired in 2013 as LNCP President, having served in that position since he co-founded the organisation in 1981.